The Stelvio Pass is the highest pass in the eastern Alps and one of the highest in the Alps, at over 9,000ft, and links Italy and Switzerland. Visually, it is perhaps the most stunning and photogenic pass in the Europe, and has featured in everything from the Giro d’Italia cycle race to Clarkson era Top Gear. And Alfa Romeo and Ducati model names.
Somehow, it has become a by-word for the evocative and enticing mountain road. Can’t think why……
The Alps are almost universally stunning, and one of my favourite parts of Europe, and so integral to Europe’s history.
Photos and maps do not do it justice; video may be necessary.
A video with the sound of Busso V6 works sounds like a plan….only 8.5 km and 29 hairpins to the top….enjoy the ride!
I drove up and over the Stelvio Pass on my birthday, on 6 July 1987, in my 1986 Rover 216 Vitesse. Great fun on all those hairpins – as you approach the pass the mountain looks like a sheer wall that you are going to have to climb, but up you go. Coming down the other side in a classic car with all the limitations of drum brakes might be scary. My parents had some interesting moments coming down Alpine passes in their 1937 Packard 120 woody, when they ‘did’ Europe several times in the early 1950s. Brake fade was an issue with our 1959 Vauxhall Victor coming down the Brenner with six in the car and an unbraked luggage trailer hitched on the back. Scary, with hindsight.
Wow – what a great video! Watching (and listing) to this made my weekend good!
I must say though that this video is much more compelling that some of the Google StreetView images that show the road clogged with tour buses, bicyclists and tourist traffic:
I’d love to drive that road. But I have no illusions that I’m a great driver, and I’d go slower than the guy in the video.
This looks hard but oddly to me it is a lower pass than ones I know in the Rockies – Loveland, Vail, Rabbit Ears, La Veta and Monarch passes. Those are higher in altitude but not as intimidating. Maybe the roads in America are excellent.
It’s not how high the mountain is, but how steep the valley. And that’s a narrow road — looks like a lane-and-a-half — without any center line. Traffic was blocked for this video, obviously.
Ah, the nice memories of living in Colorado before I moved back to Germany! I drove on those roads you mentioned.
The highest I’ve driven was Pikes Peak Highway. Actually, my friend was driving his car until he freaked out about a mile past the toll gate. The sight of road with no side barriers with long drop down to the ground unnerved him. So, we switched, and I drove on. That was most spirited driving experience I’ve had.
Growing up in southern Germany, we often drove on Bundesstraße 31 between Freiburg and Titisee before turning to Bundesstraßen 317 then 500 southward to our grandparents’ home in Waldshut-Tiengen. There’s this famous Höllental keyhole pass that my brother and I eagerly anticipated and my father dreaded. That was the automotive equivalent of rollercoaster and “playing the chicken”. “Playing the chicken” part is that this route doesn’t always give you plenty of room and opportunities to overtake the slower lorries and severely underpowered cars towing the caravans. That made the whole driving exciting for us but very tiring for my father.
My God, that’s the voice of an angel!
Nice road but unimpressed with a driver and car who cannot stay in his own lane, thry the 110 bends of Gormanstan hill going into Queenstown in Tasmania if you like twisty roads
Drove the Stelvio three years ago in my Triumph TR4, along with some other Alpine passes on a Trip To The Alps. Great fun.
Here is something that might interest the commentariat – a 1.6 liter Alfa Romeo GTA racing against a pair of race-prepped 7 liter 1963 Ford Galaxies at the Goodwood historic races. It’s very much a race between two very different worlds.
Yikes, that bit of “undertaking” by the GTA at the end is something else. Wonder if the big Ford was beginning to run out of brakes a bit by then (though that’s probably not likely with modern set-up). That certainly used to be a huge factor in evening out big v. little contests back in the day.
The ride up the Alps is thrilling. However, I would be the bane of sports drivers because I would take my time and enjoy the view. I note that there are several sidings for people such as I to stop and take it all in. As for the 1963 Ford Galaxies, what a hoot! Do they have beefed up suspensions? One thing in the favor of those Fords is that they are equivalent to a fat-assed (pardon my language) lady walking down the center of a supermarket aisle such that you just cannot pass the snail to get to your desiredproduct in the aisle. Great comments gents and fun videos.
Those little bugs stay well away from those big, bright Galaxie brake lights! I love those ’63 Fords – in any application. What handsome brutes they are.
My ’73 Volvo 145 struggled up those various Colorado passes; it was even fuel injected but what work that was. I bet a standard (any) V-8 ’63 Galaxie went up the passes in third gear presenting the driver no concern.
Thanks for the Ford/Alfa clip.